Just when they get to .500 and appear to be on the cusp of something great, they creep back into a hole filled with darkness and doubt.

Winnipeg wants its hockey team to make the playoffs. The Jets talk about making the playoffs and doing the things needed to realize such a dream. But after performances such as Tuesday's disastrous 4-1 loss to the Florida Panthers, it's hard to think of those words as anything but hollow.

"We weren't very good at all. We lacked a lot of things. It was concerning to me. I didn't think we played hard enough. I didn't think we did the necessary things we needed to do to win the game. We didn't play with enough passion, enough heart. Our best players? I don't know if you could tell who they would be," said head coach Claude Noel.

Noel had warned about his team taking the Panthers lightly prior to the game. Florida had lost three straight and had been hit with wave after wave of bad news on the injury front totalling up to nine players out of the lineup. Tuesday evening, the Panthers used eight players who have spent time in the AHL this season.

The Jets should have pounced on the Panthers and put two points in the bank but in the words of goalie Ondrej Pavelec, they "just didn't show up."